Squid Game season 2: key information
– Release date confirmed for late December
– Teasers released in February, August, and September
– Gi-hun, Front Man, and Recruiter all confirmed to return
– Brand new character, played by Park Gyu-young, will appear
– Official story synopsis revealed
– In-development third season will be main show’s final chapter
– Other spin-offs in the works at Netflix
Squid Game season 2’s release date is slowly approaching. Indeed, like a contestant in the wildly popular Netflix series’ ‘Red Light, Green Light’ game, it’s shuffling into view with each passing day.
With, at the time of this article’s last update, three months to go until Squid Game‘s next season arrives, then, you’ll want to learn more about it. In this guide, we’ve rounded up the latest information for you to peruse, including its release date, numerous teasers, confirmed cast roster, plot specifics, and the franchise’s future on the world’s best streaming service.
Major spoilers follow for season 1 of one of the best Netflix shows ever made. Potential season 2 spoilers are also incoming.
Squid Game season 2 release date
It’s almost time to pull you back in. Squid Game Season 2 special teaser TOMORROW. #GeekedWeek pic.twitter.com/L3UIubfO6ESeptember 18, 2024
Squid Game season 2’s release date was announced in August and it’s confirmed to launch on Netflix in time for the festive season. Indeed, it’s set to arrive on Thursday, December 26 worldwide.
Before then, Netflix had only teased it would debut before the year ended, with the streaming giant revealing Squid Game season 2 was part of its 2024 release schedule in April.
There’s no word on whether season 2 will be released in full yet. Many of Netflix’s TV Originals have been released in two parts over the past couple of years, including the latest seasons of Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Witcher, and Cobra Kai, so Squid Game‘s sophomore season could follow suit. We’ll update this section once we know for sure.
Squid Game season 2 trailer: is there one?
Not an official one, no. The closest thing we have to a Squid Game season 2 trailer is a minute-long teaser that was unveiled during Netflix Geeked Week 2024’s live event. Still, it confirmed some big plot details about the hit Netflix show’s return, so the footage on display is the best look we’ve received so far.
Before that mid-September reveal, the only footage we had to pore over came via a season 2 launch date announcement video (see below), which provided little in the way of details about the forthcoming chapter’s story.
Before that, we only had a brief first clip of Squid Game season 2, which showed Gi-hun on a John Wick-style quest for revenge. You can watch that sneak peek below:
Introducing the very first look at Season 2 of SQUID GAME. Coming this year. pic.twitter.com/mT80pivKmoFebruary 1, 2024
Squid Game season 2 cast: confirmed and rumored
Full spoilers follow for Squid Game season 1.
Here’s the confirmed cast for Squid Game season 2 so far:
- Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun
- Lee Byung-hun as Front Man
- Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho
- Gong Yoo as The Recruiter
There’ll be plenty of new faces in season 2 as well, but their character identities haven’t been disclosed. View the list below to see who’ll be joining Gi-hun on the dangerous game-based spectacle front this season:
- Yim Si-wan
- Kang Ha-neul
- Park Gyu-young
- Lee Jin-uk
- Park Sung-hoon
- Yang Dong-geun
- Roh Jae-won
- Jo Yu-ri
- Won Ji-an
- Kang Ae-sim
- Lee David
- Choi Seung-hyun
While we wouldn’t expect to see any deceased characters come back from the dead, Lee Jung-Jae has shared his own wild idea for Squid Game season 2. Speaking after winning Best Actor at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards, he revealed (per Entertainment Tonight) that he hopes to see fan-favorite characters like Sae-byeok and Ali return in new episodes: “My idea is that maybe the masked men took all of [the dead characters away] and made sure they came back to life.”
If that wish comes true, perhaps we could see the likes of Heo Sung-tae, Kim Joo-ryeong, and Anupam Tripathi return. In all likelihood, though, new episodes will only feature the aforementioned returning quartet and season 2’s newcomers.
Interestingly, Hwang has spoken of his desire to see US actors make surprise appearances in future seasons. Speaking to Variety, Hwang confirmed he wanted to see Hollywood stars show up, although that won’t happen this season.
“There will be no known Hollywood actor in [Squid Game] season 2,” Hwang confirmed. “That’s not in the plan, and if the stage changes, maybe in season 3 – but for season 2, [the show] is still set in Korea. Leonardo DiCaprio did say he’s a big fan of Squid Game, so maybe if time or chances allow, we can ask him to join the games!”
Squid Game season 2 story speculation
Full spoilers follow for Squid Game season 1. Possible season 2 spoilers are also discussed.
Here’s Squid Game season 2’s plot synopsis: “Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 [Seong Gi-hun] remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport. Using this fortune to fund his search, Gi-hun starts with the most obvious of places: look for the man in a sharp suit playing ddakji in the subway. But when his efforts finally yield results, the path toward taking down the organization proves to be deadlier than he imagined: to end the game, he needs to re-enter it.”
A new life-threatening round of the famous, fictional gameshow, then, is on the cards. That’s in spite of Gi-hun’s clear reluctance to take part once more, given what happened to him and his fellow contestants last time around. If he wants to seek revenge on Front Man and company – read more details about why in our Squid Game season 1 ending explained article – though, he’ll have no choice but to participate again.
Prior to the story brief’s reveal, there was plenty of teasing from the cast and crew about what its next chapter would entail – not least from showrunner Hwang Dong-hyuk. In a 2021 interview with The Associated Press, he said: “I will promise you this: Gi-hun will come back, he will do something for the world”. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Hwang later added: “[We could] explore more about how he’s going to navigate through his reckoning with the people who are designing the games.”
So, it seems Squid Game 2 will explore this in conjunction with Gi-hun’s hesitance-laced gameshow ‘homecoming’. To us, it initially didn’t make sense for Gi-hun to return and take part in the lethal games once more, but foregoing this part of the narrative would’ve eliminated much of what makes Squid Game so entertaining: the games themselves. Hwang himself also revealed (via Vanity Fair in June 2022), that season 2 will definitely feature more of the show’s famously perilous and gruesome puzzles, which confirmed Gi-hun would stage a dramatic return to the remote facility.
Speaking to E! on the SAG awards red carpet in February 2022, Jung-jae responded to questions about Squid Game season 2 by saying: “I hope that [Gi-hun] is definitely going to win [the games] again to do something good”, which suggests Squid Game‘s most famous contestant will not only compete, but also attempt to infiltrate the gameshow’s inner circle and bring them down from the inside.
And what of the games themselves? Speaking to Vanity Fair, Hwang claimed fans will “be introduced to Young-hee’s boyfriend, Cheol-su” – a reference to the series’ now-iconic murderous robot doll – in season 2. And, based on the final shot of the forthcoming entry’s release date announcement teaser, it seems Young-hee will be back to rack up her kill count, too.
For those who need a reminder: Young-hee featured in Squid Game’s first episode – ‘Red Light, Green Light’ – as a motion-sensing animatron that ordered the deaths of any contestants caught moving while under its watchful gaze. Young-hee was responsible for 255 fatalities in season 1, making ‘Red Light, Green Light’ the deadliest game featured in its nine episodes. Cheol-su, it seems, is a male companion of Young-hee – and one we expect to be equally terrifying. Perhaps he’ll even sing his own version of the latter’s eerie “Red Light, Green Light, 1-2-3” jingle.
Other possible Squid Game season 2 storylines include examining the fate of Hwang Jun-ho, the undercover cop who discovers Front Man to be In-ho, aka his brother. Although he was shot and subsequently fell off the edge of a cliff, the revelation that Wi Ha-joon, who plays Jun-ho, is part of the season 2 cast all but confirms he survived the encounter. Considering we still don’t know In-ho’s motivation for becoming the game’s Front Man, this seems another subplot that’ll be explored. Hwang has shown an interest in developing this thread, too, telling he THR: “I’d like to explore that storyline – what is going on between those two brothers?”
Hwang also hinted at the possibility of following the mysterious Recruiter in more detail, telling THR: “I could also go into the story of that Recruiter in the suit who plays the game of ddakji with Gi-hun and gives him the card in the first episode”. With The Recruiter is also confirmed to return, season 2 is nailed on to include this particular subplot.
As for what else we could see: the rest is a mystery. There are numerous directions – ones we’ve mentioned above or otherwise – that Squid Game season 2 could go in, and we suspect whatever unfolds will be as gripping as its forebear. Here’s hoping that’s the case, anyway, and the series’ second installment doesn’t disappointingly go through the motions.
Will Squid Game season 2 mark the end of the hit Netflix show?
Attention all players: we’re here to deliver an important message. pic.twitter.com/xspvk8HhePJuly 31, 2024
Squid Game season 2 won’t be the show’s last installment, but its sequel will be. Confirmed in a Netflix press release and an open letter from Hwang, the main series’ third season will wrap up Gi-hun’s story in 2025.
That won’t be the end of the franchise, however. In late June, it was reported that film auteur David Fincher had halted worked on his Chinatown TV remake in favor of pursuing an English language reinterpretation of Squid Game. It’s unclear if the latter will be a movie or a TV show.
Then there’s Squid Game: The Challenge, Netflix’s popular reality spin-off based on the fictional series. The controversy-laced show, which follows the same rules as the fictional show minus the actual death, proved to be popular with viewers following its November 2023 release. A second season is already in development.
Lastly on the ‘confirmed projects’ front, a satire-based series – based on Squid Game‘s success – titled ‘The Best Show on the Planet‘ is also getting made (per Deadline). Fans will be pleased to hear that Hwang is crafting this show, too.
What’s more, given that Netflix boss Ted Sarandos has spoken of a “Squid Game universe” when he announced the show’s season 2 renewal, there are likely other spin-offs that have discussed in the corridors of power. How many of them will see the light of day? We aren’t sure, but let’s just hope it isn’t delivered in the form of one of Squid Game‘s chill-inducing invitation cards.
For Netflix TV show-based coverage, read our guides on Stranger Things season 5, Arcane season 2, The Lincoln Lawyer season 3, and Wednesday season 2.
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